What Being Single Is, Because It’s Not Just Feeling ‘Lonely’

Being single is having the freedom to do what you want, when you want. It’s having the ability to focus on yourself, to focus on your career and your personal goals.

Being single is finding the strength within yourself to be happy on your own. To force yourself to find happiness in who you are as an individual. To know how to laugh by yourself and feel content. To know how to smile to yourself alone in a cafe. To know how to live your life. Without leaning on anyone else.

Being single is enjoying free time with your amazing friends. It’s feeling the joy of having great and nourising friendships around you. It’s finding comfort and solace in the connections you make with new people along the way. It’s feeling perfectly blissful staying in on a Friday night with a few of your best friends, just talking about life.

Being single is taking care of yourself. It’s making time to exercise or to take a quiet walk when it’s nice outside. It’s taking the time for yourself when you need to. It’s knowing when to go, and knowing when to stop.

Being single is feeling lonely and confused one night and the next day calling your girlfriends to talk about it. It’s tearing up thinking about past loves, but then realizing that you have yourself.

It’s having and experiencing ups and downs. But it’s empowering as hell.

Being single is dancing alone in your room getting ready for a night out, and then dancing with a cute boy or girl at your local bar. It’s kissing different lips and exploring different options, loving the fact that you don’t have to be tied down to anyone. It’s being able to mingle if you want to, but also being able to just take a break from dating for however long you want to.

Being single is learning how to be a happy individual without asking for help. It’s being brave when things go wrong and being confident when people try to tear you down. It’s walking to your local grocery store and making dinner for a table of one. It’s looking at yourself in the mirror and confidently smiling back at your reflection.

It’s reflecting and learning and growing.

Being single isn’t a curse. It can be a blessing, if you really want it to be. It doesn’t have to be a death sentence or something to be ashamed of. Being single is a time of growth and a time of change, not a time of self-pity. Being single isn’t anything to look down upon. Being single is living your life according to you and on your own terms.

Being single is being able to be alone, and not feel an ounce of loneliness.